The New York Times - USA (2020-08-03)

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Election officials in New York
City widely distributed mail-in
ballots for the primary on June 23,
which featured dozens of hard-
fought races. The officials had
hoped to make voting much easi-
er, but they did not seem prepared
for the response: more than 10
times the number of absentee bal-
lots received in recent elections in
the city.
Now, nearly six weeks later, two
closely watched congressional
races remain undecided, and ma-
jor delays in counting a deluge of
400,000 mail-in ballots and other
problems are being cited as exam-
ples of the challenges facing the
nation as it looks toward conduct-
ing the November general elec-
tion during the pandemic.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and
other officials are trading blame
for the botched counting in the
city, and the Postal Service is com-
ing under criticism over whether
it is equipped to handle the sharp
increase in absentee ballots.
Election lawyers said one area
of concern in New York City was
that mail-in ballots have prepaid
return envelopes. The Postal
Service apparently had difficulty
processing some of them cor-
rectly and, as a result, an un-
known number of votes — per-
haps thousands — may have been
wrongfully disqualified because of
a lack of a postmark.
Thousands more ballots in the
city were discarded by election of-
ficials for minor errors, or not
even sent to voters until the day
before the primary, making it all
but impossible for the ballots to be
returned in time.
In recent days, President
Trump has also jumped into fray,
repeatedly citing the primary in

New York City for his unfounded
claims that mail-in voting is sus-
ceptible to fraud. There is no evi-
dence that the primary results
were tainted by criminal malfea-
sance, according to a wide array of
election officials and representa-
tives of campaigns.
Still, candidates and political
analysts are warning that govern-
ment officials at all levels need to
take urgent action to avoid a
nightmare in November.
“This election is a canary in the
coal mine,” said Suraj Patel, a
Democrat running for Congress in
a district that includes parts of
Manhattan, Brooklyn and
Queens, who has filed a federal

Lag in Tallying

Mail-In Ballots

Raises Alarms

New York City Is Still

Deciding June Races

By JESSE McKINLEY

In April, with hospitals over-

whelmed and much of the United

States in lockdown, the Depart-

ment of Health and Human Serv-

ices produced a presentation for

the White House arguing that rap-

id development of a coronavirus

vaccine was the best hope to con-

trol the pandemic.

“DEADLINE: Enable broad ac-

cess to the public by October

2020 ,” the first slide read, with the

date in bold.

Given that it typically takes

years to develop a vaccine, the

timetable for the initiative, called

Operation Warp Speed, was in-

credibly ambitious. With tens of

thousands dying and tens of mil-

lions out of work, the crisis de-

manded an all-out public-private

response, with the government

supplying billions of dollars to

pharmaceutical and biotechnolo-

gy companies, providing logistical

support and cutting through red

tape.

It escaped no one that the pro-

posed deadline also intersected

nicely with President Trump’s

need to curb the virus before the

election in November.

The ensuing race for a vaccine

— in the middle of a campaign in

which the president’s handling of

the pandemic is the key issue after

he has spent his time in office un-

dermining science and the exper-

tise of the federal bureaucracy —

is now testing the system set up to

ensure safe and effective drugs to

a degree never before seen.

Under constant pressure from a

White House anxious for good

news and a public desperate for a

silver bullet to end the crisis, the

government’s researchers are

fearful of political intervention in

the coming months and are strug-

gling to ensure that the govern-

ment maintains the right balance

between speed and rigorous regu-

lation, according to interviews

with administration officials, fed-

eral scientists and outside ex-

perts.

Even in a less politically

charged environment, there

would be a fraught debate about

how much to accelerate the

process of trials and approval. The

longer that vaccines are tested be-

fore being released, the likelier

they are to be safe and effective.

But with 1,000 people dying

each day in the United States,

schools finding it difficult to re-

open and the deep recession in-

flicting economic pain across the

country, the desire to find a way to

return to normal life is powerful

and transcends partisan politics

and borders. On Sunday, Russia

announced that it planned to start

a nationwide inoculation cam-

paign in October with a vaccine

that had yet to complete clinical

trials, the latest evidence of the

SCIENTISTS FRET

AS WHITE HOUSE

RUSHES VACCINE

EYEING SAFETY VS. NEED

Fears of Pressure to Hand

an ‘October Surprise’

to the President

This article is by Sharon LaFra-

niere, Katie Thomas, Noah Weiland,

Peter Bakerand Annie Karni.

Continued on Page A

BILL INGALLS/NASA, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Sunday, parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico to end a flight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Page A17.

Making a Splashdown

When Liz Herring arrived at

George Washington University as

a freshman in 1966, she entered a

capital city in the throes of the civil

rights movement. Just three

years after a quarter-million peo-

ple had crowded the National Mall

to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther

King Jr., Congress was debating

civil rights legislation as violent

protests continued across the

country.

Yet, little of that political unrest

reached Kappa Alpha Theta, the

all-white sorority the future sena-

tor from Massachusetts would

soon pledge. Yearbook photos

show Ms. Herring in a group of

smiling young women, corsages

pinned to their white dresses, hair

perfectly flipped up at the ends.

The young Ms. Herring, who

fought her mother to attend col-

lege away from her conservative

hometown, went to rush parties

and meetings, charity events and

the annual “goat show,” a sketch

comedy performance for all of the

Greek organizations, where a

master of ceremonies defended

sororities as a “unifying force” for

the school. No Black woman had

ever been offered acceptance into

any of the sororities on campus.

More than half a century later,

the young college coed, who now

goes by Senator Elizabeth War-

ren, led the charge in Congress to

require the Pentagon to rename

bases that honor Confederate mil-

itary leaders. She spent much of

her time on the trail during the

Warren’s Path

To Awakening

On Racial Bias

By LISA LERER

and SYDNEY EMBER

Continued on Page A

This month, many colleges

around the country plan to wel-

come back thousands of students

into something they hope will re-

semble normal campus life. But

they face challenges unlike any

other American institution — con-

taining the coronavirus among a

young, impulsive population that

not only studies together, but lives

together, parties together, and, if

decades of history are any guide,

sleeps together.

It will be a hugely complex and

costly endeavor requiring far

more than just the reconfiguring

of dorm rooms and cafeterias and

the construction of annexes and

tent classrooms to increase social

distancing. It also crucially in-

volves the creation of testing pro-

grams capable of serving commu-

nities the size of small cities and

the enforcement of codes of con-

duct among students not eager to

be policed.

Who will be tested for the coro-

navirus and how quickly can they

get results? Will mask wearing be

mandated? And what will happen

to tailgating, keg parties and

sneaking into your partner’s dorm

room? Colleges are mapping

strategies as varied as the con-

trasting Covid regulations en-

acted by the states, reflecting the

culture and leadership of their

schools.

Syracuse is vowing to play the

strict parent, requiring students

to sign codes of conduct with pen-

alties for violating Covid-19 rules

more severe than the punishment

for smoking marijuana. But the

University of Kentucky is

presenting a more lenient front,

adopting existing honor codes

that urge students to “promote

personal responsibility and peer

accountability.”

And the University of Texas-

Austin has prohibited students

from holding parties on or off cam-

pus, banned overnight guests in

dorm rooms and warned students

Colleges Cram for a Test: ‘Can We Open Safely?’

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

and SHAWN HUBLER

Moving into the dorms last week during a staggered return to N.C. State University in Raleigh.

GERRY BROOME/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Just Getting Students

to Stay 6 Feet Apart

Poses a Challenge

Continued on Page A

For Graham Ivan Clark, the on-
line mischief-making started
early.
By the age of 10, he was playing
the video game Minecraft, in part
to escape what he told friends was
an unhappy home life. In
Minecraft, he became known as
an adept scammer with an explo-

sive temper who cheated people

out of their money, several friends

said.

At 15, he joined an online hack-

ers’ forum. By 16, he had gravi-

tated to the world of Bitcoin, ap-

pearing to involve himself in a

theft of $856,000 of the cryptocur-

rency, though he was never

charged for it, social media and le-

gal records show. On Instagram

posts afterward, he showed up

with designer sneakers and a

bling-encrusted Rolex.

The teenager’s digital misbe-

havior ended on Friday when the

police arrested him at a Tampa,

Fla., apartment. Florida prosecu-

tors said Mr. Clark, now 17, was the

The Troubled Online Path of a Teen ‘Mastermind’

This article is by Nathaniel Pop-
per, Kate Congerand Kellen Brown-
ing.

From Minecraft Tricks

to Huge Twitter Hack

Continued on Page A

The city’s Board of Elections
said it had a staff shortage.

VICTOR J. BLUE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A

An illustrated guide to how schools will
try to control the virus when students
return, this fall or in the future. PAGE A

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-

Back to School, Gingerly

The link is already a point of pride, but

some Italians fear it will not be enough

to revive the aging port city. PAGE A

INTERNATIONAL A12-

A New Bridge for Genoa

Six of our critics offer their thoughts on

the visual album called “Black Is King,”

a work rooted in “The Gift,” her “Lion

King”-inspired effort. PAGE C

ARTS C1-

Analyzing Beyoncé’s Latest

As federal agents withdraw from a city,

demonstrators shift their focus back to

local law enforcement and their crimi-

nal justice system. PAGE A

NATIONAL A15-19, 22

Portland Turns to Original Foe

Lenders don’t make a lot on loans under

$100,000, but there are programs to

help, enhancing communities and buoy-

ing buyers in the process. PAGE B

BUSINESS B1-

A Little Mortgage, a Big Boost

A surge in virus cases. Joblessness and
a broken unemployment claims system.
And, it’s hurricane season. PAGE A

Florida’s Summer of Dread

Briefings by Kayleigh McEnany, the

press secretary, have grown less infor-

mative and lost viewers. PAGE A

An Official Voice Less Heard

Telenovelas, Mexican soap operas,

enjoy renewed popularity as viewers

seek relief in a familiar genre. PAGE A

Mexico’s TV Comfort Food

Recognizable by his walrus mustache,

Wilford Brimley specialized in cantan-

kerous characters. He was 85. PAGE D

OBITUARIES D7-

Star of ‘Cocoon’ and TV Ads

On social media, competitors are shar-

ing their experiences in the wake of a

documentary that highlights verbal and

physical abuse by coaches. PAGE D

SPORTSMONDAY D1-

Gymnasts’ Fight Goes Global

Charles M. Blow PAGE A

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-

It was a weekend of chaos on

TikTok — unleashed on Friday

night when President Trump said,

while aboard Air Force One, that

he might ban the video app.

The surprise announcement

sent influencers in droves onto

livestreams to give possibly pre-

mature teary and heartfelt good-

byes to their fans, asking them to

join them on apps like Instagram,

YouTube and Triller. For agencies

that manage talent on the plat-

form, it was a long weekend of

hand-holding and downloading

TikTok archives for posterity.

Some users, in a last-hurrah bid

for virality, reposted TikToks they

said had previously been removed

by the service for violating nudity

or profanity guidelines.

Others tried to make light of the

situation. Addison Easterling, 19,

a TikTok star who dropped out of

Louisiana State University to pur-

sue a full-time influencer career,

posted a video of herself pretend-

ing to knock on the college’s doors

to let her back in. “Me at LSU to-

morrow,” she captioned it.

Trump’s Talk of Banning TikTok Inflames Gen Z

By TAYLOR LORENZ Both Creators and Fans

Feel a World Shake

Continued on Page A

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX.... No. 58,774 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, AUGUST 3, 2020

Today,humid, partly cloudy, high 88.

Tonight,humid, thunderstorms, low

72. Tomorrow,wind and rain from
    Tropical Storm Isaias, high 75.
    Weather map appears on Page B8.

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